Just a few years later, the Berkeley software engineer is editing digital maps so precise they include drinking fountains and benches in the Bay Area parks where he hikes, and the mapping community has swelled to more than 240,000 global members. The effort, OpenStreetMap, is a kind of grass-roots Wikipedia for maps that is transforming how map data is collected, shared and used -- from the desktop to smart phones to car navigation.
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Citizen mapping is "an evolution of the entire mapping process," said Richard Taketa, chairman of the geography department at San Jose State. It "is going to be part of the mapping world as we move on to the future."
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A visit to www.openstreetmap.org reveals a searchable map that covers cities and towns around the world and that looks and acts a lot like Google Maps or Microsoft"s Bing maps. With two crucial differences: OpenStreetMap has an edit button, allowing users who sign up for an account to make changes or add features, and it has an export button, allowing people to freely use map data for software applications or other uses. An iPhone app, Mapzen, is an easy way to contribute to the map.
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